China to create world's largest mega city with 42 million people

Published: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 13:10 [IST]

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Beijing, Jan 25 (ANI): Chinese planners are reportedly proposing to merge nine cities around the Pearl River Delta in the southern parts of the country, to create the world's biggest mega city, twice the size of Wales with a population of 42 million.

According to The Telegraph, the "Turn The Pearl River Delta Into One" scheme will create a 16,000 square mile urban area that is 26 times larger geographically than Greater London, or twice the size of Wales.

The new mega-city will cover a large part of China's manufacturing heartland, stretching from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and including Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Huizhou and Zhaoqing, which accounts for nearly a tenth of the Chinese economy, the paper said.

Around 150 major infrastructure projects would reportedly link the transport, energy, water, and telecommunications networks of the nine cities together at a cost of some two trillion Yuan (190 billion pounds) over the next ten years.

The paper quoted Ma Xiangming, the chief planner at the Guangdong Rural and Urban Planning Institute and a senior consultant on the project, as saying that an express rail line will also connect the hub with nearby Hong Kong.

"The idea is that when the cities are integrated, the residents can travel around freely and use the health care and other facilities in the different areas," Ma added.

He said that it will help spread industry and jobs more evenly across the region and public services will also be distributed more fairly, adding that 29 rail lines, totaling 3,100 miles, will be included, cutting rail journeys around the urban area to a maximum of one hour between different city centres.

The planners believe that the project would help in reduction of phone bills by 85 percent and improve conditions of hospitals and schools. Besides, the major problem of pollution around the Pearl River Delta caused because of its industrialization would also be reportedly addressed. (ANI)